Devices for temporarily lifting the mud flaps on trucks or trailers are known. These are usually applied to dump trucks to prevent the mud flaps from being torn off while dumping or during asphalt spreading operations.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,507,513 to Bohrer shows a retractable mud flap for trucks with a case mounted on the underside of the vehicle above the wheel, and a reciprocating carriage in the case connected to the mud flap by a hinge mechanism. The flap can be retracted by the carriage horizontally into the case from its vertical working position. The carriage mechanism in the case is protected by a sealing strip.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,582,109 to Moore shows an apparatus for retracting dump truck mounted mud flaps, in which the bottom ends of the mud flaps are affixed to the ends of a Y-shaped cable connected to a pneumatic cylinder by a pivotally mounted lever arm. The operating cylinder and cable are mounted centrally on the bed of the dump body to move therewith.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,158,775 to Nickels shows a mud flap lifting device with a cable having a first end attached to an intermediate portion of a mud flap. The device lifts the flap away from a truck's tires and prevents them from being torn off when the truck is backing up or dumping a load. Devices for lifting both flaps simultaneously as well as each flap individually are described. In one individual flap lifting version, the cable is attached to an intermediate portion of the mud flap at a forward or inside face of the mud flap, and pulls the mud flap forwardly up underneath the corner of the vehicle toward the rear tires.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,880,894 to Obermeyer shows a dump trailer for asphalt paving, with a mud flap mounting bracket suitable for use with a hingeably mounted dump bed. The mud flap mounting bracket is substantially parallel to a hinge arm for the dump bed, allowing the mud flap to be sufficiently displaced towards the rear of the trailer so as to not interfere with the hinge attachment during the raising and lowering process.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,850,206 to Proctor shows a mud flap lifting system for raising and lowering a pair of mud flaps, with a rotating shaft extending across the back of the vehicle and sheaves on the shaft aligned with each of the mud flaps to wind and unwind cables attached to the mud flaps.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,579,314 to Prazen et al. shows a removable mud flap assembly in which the mud flaps are easily removed from brackets on the vehicle without the use of tools.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2004/0164539 A1 to Bernard shows a mud flap lifter system in which the mud flaps are connected to a rod rotatable about a central axis so as to partially wrap the mud flaps around pairs of spaced, curved end plates to lift the mud flaps.
A “live bottom” truck or trailer is an alternative to a dump truck or an end dump trailer, commonly used in tandem with a hopper-equipped paving machine to pave roads with asphalt. Unlike the conventional dump truck, the tub does not have to be raised to deposit the load material; the live bottom trailer has a conveyor in the trailer tub or “box” that conveys the asphalt out the back of the trailer to a paving machine hopper, while the paving machine has a bumper or roller engaged with the rear wheels of the live bottom trailer to push the trailer at a controlled pace. The paving machine rollers frequently damage the live bottom vehicle's mud flaps during such a paving operation.
The prior art as exemplified by the above is not believed to be suitable for raising the mud flaps of a live bottom truck or trailer (hereafter trailer) in which asphalt is conveyed out of a central rear opening in the vehicle load box into a paving machine's hopper while the paving machine's rollers are engaged with the rear wheels of the vehicle.